Improvement in oyster-openers



e. E. LUM & T. P. SANFORD.

OYSTER-OPENER.- No. 177,138. Patented May 9,1876.

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- N. PETERS. FNQTO-LITHOGRAPMER, WASHINGTON, D. C.

UNI ED STATES PATENT CFFIGE.

GEORGE LUM AND T. PERRY SANFORD, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN OYSTER-OPENERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 177,138, dated May 9, 1876; application filed February 8, 1876.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, GEORGE E. LUM and T.PERRY SANFORD, both of New Haven, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement in Oyster-Knives; and we do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent a side view. 1 1

This invention relates to a device for opening oysters, the object being to combine in one instrument means for breaking or chipping the shell with the blade for opening; and it consists in a principal handle terminating in a blade, and having a jaw at the heel of the said blade, the face of, which is at an angle of nearly forty-live degrees to the -handle, combined with a second handle hinged to the principal handle, and terminating in a jaw corresponding to the jaw on the principal handle, as more fully hereinafter described.

A is the principal handle terminating in a blade, B, of substantially the usual form of the blades of oyster-knives. At the heel of the knife ajaw, O, is formed, the handle bent so as to make this jaw in the form of a shoulder in the handle, and at nearly an angle of forty-five degrees thereto. D is the second handle, crossing the first at the bend, and there hinged upon a pintle, a. This handle terminates in a jaw, E, corresponding to the jaw G, and so that when the jaws are opened, as denoted in broken lines, the tip of the shell may be introduced between the two jaws, and then the forcingof the handles together cracks or chips the shell sufficiently to allow the insertion of the blade, and the two handles, when closed together, form a convenientlyshaped handle for the use of the blade.

We do not wish to be understood as broadly claiming in one instrument a device for chipping the shell of an oyster combined with a blade, as such, we are aware, is not new; but

. What we do claim is' As an article of manufacture, the herein-described oyster-knife, consisting of the principal handle A terminating in the blade B, and having the jaw O, the face thereof being at an angle of nearly forty-five degrees thereto, combined with the handle D hinged to the handle A, and terminating in a jaw correspondin g to the jaw O on the principal handle, substantially as described.

GEORGE E. LUM. T. PERRY SANFORD. Witnesses: JOHN E. EARLE,

CLARA BROUGHTON- 

